The project Tabula Marina appeared in March 2005 in Novi Sad. A poster – an association to marble or bronze plaques, so popular in the SFR Yugoslavia, reminding the passersby of the NOB (National Defense War) heroes, probably placed during the 70s in many buildings of many towns of that country. They always begin with the same syntax, like modern fairytales: Once upon a time… This is the building in which… Almost always they talk of the building, the wall supporting them. In that building, there were some people, now dead - there is only the building left and the plaque. They are rarely dedicated to cultural events.
The glorification and laying claim to great people has become a classical Serbian pattern of behavior, the greats who have made a name for themselves alone or supported by a state other than their own. They spend more than a half of their lives in a sort of exile, betrayed by the people closest to them, and accepted by the most elitist institutions in the world.
Marina Abramovic, on her first official tour of Serbia, after some 30 years stated: “You claim that Tesla is yours, that I am yours, prove it!” Whose are Andric, Tesla, Abramovic? They belong to themselves, but to the world as well. They are a part of the folklore of humanity, a collective experience and heritage.
Marina, before her international career, taught at the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad. Because of the performance in which her body appeared naked, this period lasted for only two years. A perfect move. Things are repeated and are so clear. A plaque as a reminder, a warning. As a sign at the entrance to the pyramid, as a feeling one has stepping into a gothic cathedral - for students and teachers. Who works in her place?
The plaque is made as an analogy with the communist-socialist plaques, imitating their text formulations. The use of the Roman Capital font, engraved on a marble plaque by montage (plaque from the house in Negotin where Stevan Mokranjac was born), as well as the Roman way of arranging letters, taken from the TABULA TRAIANA set in the Djerdap gorge honoring emperor Traian who had broken a road through the cliffs, all make a direct link to the Roman imperial accomplishments.
In the year 2005, on March 14th, at the main entrance of the Academy, a poster was hung reading: “This is the building in which great international artist Marina Abramovic worked between 1973 and 1975.” The poster was supported by a number of stickers with the same motif, all over the building. A delegation of students and teachers from Greece is standing before the ‘plaque’ saying her name in excited voices… Marina…
Only three days and a couple of graffiti later, the poster was removed.
A real marble plaque will be placed in thirty years and tourists will be buying souvenirs.